Economy — rural aspect — by then Japan remained agrarian-oriented. Agriculture of a subsistence type was the mode of life for most Japanese, and wealth was measured in terms of rice yield. Nevertheless, poverty, high taxation and natural disasters forced many peasants to abandon their fields and flock to the cities. Farmers’ life and income were precarious, and many lost their lands to money lenders and had to become either tenants or labourers. A few, however, acquired wealth through commercial agriculture. They used new implements, seeds and fertilizers to grow such cash crops as silk and cotton. As such, a growing disparity between the rich and the poor took place in the countryside.
Moreover, local industries sprang up in rural areas, recruiting labourers from the landless. These industries included cotton spinning, weaving, dyeing and brewing of sake.

Economy — rise of commerce in cities — the prolonged period of peace, the growth of commercial agriculture, and the rise of money economy — all contributed to the prosperity of commerce in late Tokugawa Japan by the early 19th century. Commercial activities grew both in scale and in complexity.
Japanese merchants, facing the rather precarious political situation (official despise of commerce and their low social status) began to organize themselves into monopoly guilds in order to seek security through collective action and to keep prices and profits high.

Financial conditions of the ruling classes — financially, the Japanese ruling classes from the shogun to the daimyo were facing great difficulties. The fundamental cause was “a cash expenditure rising faster than a rice revenue.” To explain simply, this means incomes from a rather inelastic rice revenue could not cope with rising cash expenses. Currency deficiency led to inflationary spiral; speculation and monopoly led to rising prices; and urban life led to luxuries, extravagancies and higher living standard.
The samurai, the daimyo, and finally the shogunate faced the same economic pressures. The most hit one was the samurai who found it more and more difficult to live on a fixed stipend payable in rice. For the daimyo and the shoguns, they resorted to forced loans on merchants and samurai, monopoly trading on “exports” to other domains or Osaka, and finally reforms. In the last respect, both Satsuma and Choshu had greater successes than other daimyo and the bakufu, and this accounts for their important role in the anti-bakufu struggles.
Such economic and financial conditions had great effects on the social conditions of Tokugawa Japan. The social hierarchy of samurai — peasants — artisans — merchants was disturbed and each class was affected.

Samurai — under the rigid social stratification, the samurai headed the list. They had been warriors, but they became civil administrators/officials during the centuries of peace under Tokugawa rule. Within the samurai, there were various ranks. They all acted in conformity with the code of Bushido.
Economic situation of the samurai, however, was bad. For reasons of temptations, luxuries of the cities and rising living standard, the stipends of the samurai could no longer make ends meet. Most samurai, therefore, were indebted to merchants and moneylenders. Some gave up their status and intermarried with the merchant class. The more serious-minded, however, were discontented. All these indicated a decaying feudal system in the early 19th century.

Peasants — the farmer followed the samurai in the social system because they were regarded as the production class. But their poverty and burdens of taxation led to discontents. This resulted in rural unrest. After 1800, rural revolts averaged five or six a year, focussing on landlords and unpopular village officials. More specifically, a mob of 70,000 revolted near Kyoto in January 1823. In 1837, there were revolts at Osaka and elsewhere.
These rural revolts could not overthrow the bakufu, but they were indications of yet another failure of the feudal system.

Merchants (chonin) — though economically rich, they were socially the lowest in the hierarchy. Together with the rural entrepreneurs who engaged in commercial agriculture and rural industries, they strove to secure status through intermarriage, corruption and subscriptions to loans. Gradually, some achieved semi-samurai status. The rigid class structure was further weakened.

Rise of cities — a significant social feature of Tokugawa Japan by the early 19th century was the appearance of urban cities and the flourishment of urban culture.
For various reasons such as the sankin kotai system and the rise of money economy, a host of merchants, traders, apprentices, day labourers and so on gathered in towns and cities. Kyoto, Osaka and Edo became populous cities by the 19th century.
In these cities, an urban bourgeoisie culture that was vigorous and sophisticated flourished. It was reflected in most of the colour prints depicting Edo life, in the novels, in the plays, and in the theatres. Ukiyo, or the floating world, was the central theme of art and literature.